Thursday, April 30, 2009

Look up in the tree, what might it be?It's not superman...It's not a squirrel...It's a baby Great Horned Owl! Yay at least one survived. Hopefully there is another one but I couldn't see it yet.(-:Pops Owl

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Rain, but not here...This has happened a lot lately. Last Friday we had a sprinkling of rain but nothing that soaked into the ground. It rains everywhere around us but not on us! I can see the rain coming down in streaks but it keeps passing us by. The downtown area got drenched. Bone dry out here. Maybe we will get lucky later this week when more rain is in the forecast!Do you see a face? I think he is blowing the rain away from us!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Happy Cactus Monday everyone! For this weeks post I want to share my old rusty stove full of sempervivums. This stove is at the barn and it gets extreme hot sun all summer. The Semps thrive there. I can't understand it because the stove is burning hot! I just love seeing it during the winter months when the color is at its best!

Check out the creator of Cactus Mondays Terri and...sign up to be part of the fun(-:

Sunday, April 26, 2009

This pond is made out of an old bathtub that use to supply my horse drinking water when I was a kid. It's been in the family for about 36 years. It was old when we got it.(-:Another look at the Copper Float Fish. My DH helped me redo their cooper tubing stakes. I wanted them to look more twisty. Since I can't solder he had to do that part(-: I need to learn how to do soldering!! Click on pictures to make them larger(-: The fish were fun to make. They are made out of toilet floats and copper sheeting. I bought the floats new at the hardware store. It was an expensive project to make but it was well worth it(-: Someone also made them out of the black rubber floats and they looked really cute too. Like a big Molly fish(-:

This is a close up of the buckets hanging on the waterbed pond. I have them filled mainly with sempervivums because that is one hot place in the summer time! Semps just grow like crazy in the heat!This is an over all view of the waterbed pond. The Sentimental Rose is blooming well and it smells so good! There are three clematis on the bed frame but I am not sure what they are. They do well here too. I planted some nasturtiums around the side of the pond and this morning I saw a snail attacking one of them. I had to step on it.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

You might recall that I was asking if anyone had seen a picture of a old bed frame planter filled with Japanese Forest grasses. Well, I never found that picture but I am going by what I remember.I really need to learn to save pictures I see so I don't lose them! Anyhow, I went ahead and ordered the grasses for it and they came today!I got 2 Hakonechloa macra Beni-kaze and 4 Hakonechloa macra Aureola from Digging Dog Nursery.I can't wait to see them grow and fill in the bed(-:

Lets add a signature to your blog. Start by accessing your settings. Click on pictures to see full size.

Next click on the icon that says settings.

Click on the icon that says formatting.

Scroll down to this box and this is where you will add your HTML for your signature. First you need to make a signature gif and upload it to photobucket or a simular freebie site. You can also go to Mylivesignature.com and make one. You won't have as many choices as far as fonts/colors etc but it is pretty easy to do.If you make your own signature like I did in paint shop or one of those other type programs then all you have to do is just copy the HTML that I have in my box and where it shows the address of my gif in red you will you delete that whole underlined red address and add the address to your gif. If you use the signature from Mylivesignature.com then you will get a generated html after you make your signature that you will copy and paste into the box. Piece of cake right? Yup!

Next save your changes. Now view your blog to see if it worked. If you have a frame around your signature, which is a problem for some folks, heres what you do next. This is where it gets tricky if you don't know how to work HTML but its not hard you just have to follow the directions...

first go back to your layout page

Click on edit HTML

Click on picture to see directions

Remember to save your work. Now you should see the signature without a frame around it. Hopefully.(-:

If you have more questions send me an email and I will try to help you(-: It isn't as hard as it seems. The main thing is you don't erase something that isn't suppose to be erased or it won't work. You should preview the changes before you save them to make sure it is what you want. If not just go back and change it again and preview again. Then if it is the way you want it save it(-:

Friday, April 24, 2009

Well it is that special day again! Guess what? It is raining!!! I can't believe it! We need rain and lots of it!I fertilized before it started raining, but I had to get an umbrella for pictures. You can almost, not see the bottle tree anymore. By next week I am sure it will be hidden by the foilage! Happy Fertilizer Friday!!!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Europena rose is doing a beautiful job of brightening up my front walkway. I have several of these planted along the driveway but they are not blooming as well yet. Europena is a floribunda. They come back just fine after cows prune them. Something to keep in mind if you live in the country(-: Every now and then a cow or cows will get in the yard some how and go to town feasting on my roses! This spring it was the forsythia. It was really pretty until a cow decided to break the whole thing off at the ground. So is the life in the country. If its not one thing its a half dozen others! Happy Thursday!!!!

I checked on the Owls this afternoon as usual and one of the baby owls was laying dead on the ground. I told the parents we would have a funeral for it later today. Anyhow, this is about as close as I will ever get to a baby Great Horned Owl. They are so far up the tree there is no way to see them until they grow up and start perching on the branches. Their nest is probably 40 feet off the ground. R.I.P. Baby!

Monday, April 20, 2009

I wanted to do Cactus Mondays but then I realized almost all my plants are succulents. So now I am thinking I should join a Succulent Sunday Meme. Does anyone know of one? Anyhow I will do this Monday Meme with my beautiful Grandaflora Keston Sempervivum. I just potted it into this lovely rusty metal planter last week and I thought it looked pretty darn cool(-: You know I love RUST!!!! Happy Cactus Monday everyone!!!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

I bought this rose last summer. This is Laura Bush. She is a floribunda rose and grows really well here in my zone 9 garden. I love the form of the petals and the delightful spicy fragrance.Speaking of Delightful...This rose is a Double Delight. This one is tea rose tree. It does great here and the colors are amazing. Here it is in a bud formThis is Double Delight after it has opened fully.

I was watching this thing swinging in the tree and bouncing around like it was a ball. I had to get a closer look and come to find out it was a bird building her nest. The nest is made out of pieces of tarp and pine needles. It just hangs from a tree branch. I am pretty sure this is a Bullocks Oriole nest. The Calycanthus is in full bloom. It smells like strawberry wine!